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How to get Depressed by the Idiot Box

Today, I am making a bit of a semi-controversial post on the Marathi Serials that air every-fracking-day on the telly. However, I would like to warn you in advance that these are my opinions and my own and I am just voicing them freely as I am entitled to! Please do not take this post personally.

If you are offended easily by such posts, don’t read further! I am also not trying to attack anyone. I am simply trying to mention the role in Indian Television as it is shown to me by various entertainment channels. (*wink*)

Also note that I do not hate Marathi channels or Marathi TV Shows. Some of them are done really well (Eg: Eka Lagnachi Dusri Gosht and Dil Dosti Dunyadaari) and have fresh content! Some others are done tastefully and the actors and actresses have acted really well! The rest are, well, boring! Let’s hope that someday, this issue will get fixed!

Also, I would like to mention that although this situation is not only with respect to Marathi serials and that it can be applied to some of the Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali……etc serials as well, there are just too many posts on them. So I (being from Maharashtra) would like to focus on these ones!

Anyways, enjoy! Please do like, share and comment on this post and voice your opinion! I would love to know if you agree with me or not!

With Love,

Kunal.

You read the title of this post. It says ‘How to get Depressed by the Idiot Box!‘ and you become skeptical. You raise an eyebrow and say, what the frack is this guy talking about? You contemplate the situation for a while and come to a conclusion: just reading the title is enough to depress me!

But I am nevertheless going to chatter on and on about the famous Marathi serials. I am sure there are a ton of posts out there about crappy ‘Drama serials‘ or so but I don’t care. This is my take on the stupid trend that is on Indian Television.

So, let us start with the names! The names of Marathi Serials in particular are so weird and long. But you already know this! You must have stumbled upon a crappy advert of one of those TV shows like ‘Maza Hoshil Ka‘ or ‘Mazhe Man Tuzhe zhale‘ or so and you must have thought in your mind, WHAT THE HELL! Who names their shows like this? Well, surprise, surprise!

And the weirdest thing is, most of the time, the names of the show don’t even mean anything! Or if they do (mostly they are poems, or sayings or a snippet of a Marathi song), they are not at all related whatsoever with the show! So then what is the point of such a name?

Next are the story lines! I can’t even begin to describe how pathetic some of them are. The one thing common in them are the ridiculous story lines that are stretched till infinity! Some of them start off good, a typical romance between the strict but kind ‘Navra’ (husband) and the quiet, innocent and submissive ‘Sun'(Daughter-in-law/wife) and there is almost always a fracking ‘Saasu'(Monster-in–Sorry, Mother-in-law) who is either very evil or very sweet! Mostly, they’re the evil ones in the show. I said earlier that these shows mostly ‘start off good’, right? I lied.

The show is almost always inside a huge bungalow or a big apartment and everyone wears makeup–even if they are being portrayed poor. All of them, rich or poor, wear nice, royal Sarees with nice, royal Jewellery and nice, royal tiklis and what not! Most of the show focuses on little things. No, I MEAN EVERY LITTLE THING! If there is a spoon falling in the kitchen, everyone’s eyes dart towards the spoon as if its a Godly spoon which has fallen on the ground and made itself impure! And it’s not even a sexy, golden spoon. It is just a pathetic little spoon.

And then there are the effects! I had promised myself not to mention the Hindi soap operas too much but in such a post, they deserve an Honorable Mention! The stupid glares and swoosh noises from the Drama serials have been borrowed by these Marathi serials too. Of the (approx.) 21 minute episodes, 12 minutes are just those stupid glares, swoosh sounds and individual faces staring at the event. A small event occurs, which in real life would surprise you mildly, surprises these Soap Opera characters in such a way that they leave their jobs just to turn their faces at the event and gawk stupidly!

Don’t even let me mention the airing times! THESE SHOWS AIR EVERYDAY! Yes, you read it right. They air once everyday (mostly at night) and is broadcasted the next morning, evening and afternoon! That means that they air all day long! If it is not one, then it’s the other! I mean, how do the stars get time to act so much? Do they not take holidays? Western shows have a ‘season break’ where they go off air for months at a time so that everyone can have a vacation. But not us Indians! We are superheros, or superheroines, man! We have the power to make faces at stupid events in slo-mo 365 days, 24X7!

Aside from that, there are the breaks! The breaks are like 5 whole minutes long. Mostly, they occur twice or thrice in a 21 minute episode. And guess what, they even show ‘Kahi Kshanat‘ (After the Break…) clips which will show us what happens after the mini-break! Can you believe that? If you piece together the Kahi Kshanat and Pudhil Bhagat (On Next episode of…) then we can get the show how it is supposed to be! The rest is just filler.

So in conclusion, I would like to say that most of the Marathi serials nowadays are stupid! Don’t get me wrong. I love the Marathi culture (being Maharashtrian myself) and there is an amazing way in which such serials can be portrayed. But instead, we actively choose to watch those serials which have outdated advertisement techniques (like a Guru Pournima Special Episode and a Diwali Special Episode which fails to portray the actual AMAZING procedures of celebrating the festivals) and for some reason, they think we need more. If you go on these websites one or two, you will see how many shows there are. And most of them have similar or blatantly copied stories and directions! Easy way to get depression for a young generation kid, or teenager or a young adult!

But the one thing I noticed, the one thing I almost missed, is the joy these shows bring to the homemaker moms, aunts and grandparents. For some supernatural reason, these shows are loved almost extensively by the housewives and old aged seniors and this is why I won’t complain too, too much! But watching them every night compulsory, form 7 pm to 11 pm because my Dad decided to put the dining table in the Living Room where the TV is (thanks, Dad) is a bit too much.

So, have these serials changed the views of our people or have they really been just a medium of entertainment? Do I hate these serials so much because of the “I-am-from-the-new-generation-and-serials-are-from-the-old-generation” situation or because I am genuinely feeling so? What about you?

You know what to do!

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